Tracy Brown Hamilton - Computer Game Development and Animation: A Practical Career Guide

Tracy Brown Hamilton is a writer, editor, and journalist based in the Netherlands. She has written several books on topics ranging from careers to media, economics to pop culture. She lives with her husband and three children.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Eric Evitts has been working with teens in the high school setting for twenty-three years. Most of his career has dealt with getting teens, especially at-risk students, to find and follow a career path of interest. He has developed curriculum for Frederick County Public Schools focusing on antibullying and career development. He is currently a counselor at South Hagerstown High School.

Danielle Irving-Johnson , MA, EdS, is currently the career services specialist at the American Counseling Association. She exercises her specialty in career counseling by providing career guidance, services, and resources designed to encourage and assist students and professionals in obtaining their educational, employment, and career goals while also promoting the importance of self-care, wellness, work-life balance, and burnout prevention. Danielle has also previously served as a mental health counselor and clinical intake assessor in community agency settings assisting diverse populations with various diagnoses.

Joyce Rhine Shull , BS, MS, is an active member of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges Career Affinity Group and the Maryland Career Development Association. She presently serves as an academic adviser in higher education, and teaches Professionalism in the Workplace as an adjunct professor. Her experience also includes two decades of management and career education of vocational courses and seminars for high school students.

Lisa Adams Somerlot is the president of the American College Counseling Association and also serves as director of counseling at the University of West Georgia. She has a PhD in counselor education from Auburn University and is a licensed professional counselor in Georgia and a nationally approved clinical supervisor. She is certified in Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Strong Interest Inventory, and Strengths Quest administration.

COMPUTER GAME DEVELOPMENT AND ANIMATION

PRACTICAL CAREER GUIDES
Series Editor: Kezia Endsley

Computer Game Development & Animation , by Tracy Brown Hamilton
Craft Artists , by Marcia Santore
Culinary Arts , by Tracy Brown Hamilton
Dental Assistants and Hygienists , by Kezia Endsley
Education Professionals , by Kezia Endsley
Fine Artists , by Marcia Santore
First Responders , by Kezia Endsley
Health and Fitness Professionals , by Kezia Endsley
Information Technology (IT) Professionals , by Erik Dafforn
Medical Office Professionals , by Marcia Santore
Skilled Trade Professionals , by Corbin Collins

Published by Rowman & Littlefield
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Copyright 2020 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hamilton, Tracy Brown, author.

Title: Computer game development and animation : a practical career guide / Tracy Brown Hamilton.

Description: Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2019. | Series: Practical career guides | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: Computer Game Development & Animation which includes interviews with professionals in the field, covers the following areas of this field that have proven to be stable, lucrative, and growing professions. Artist/Animator. Producer. Sound Designer. Video Game Designer. Video Game Developer. Video Game Tester. Writer Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019038846 (print) | LCCN 2019038847 (ebook) | ISBN 9781538133682 (paperback) | ISBN 9781538133699 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Computer games industryVocational guidance.

Classification: LCC QA76.76.C672 H35165 2019 (print) | LCC QA76.76.C672 (ebook) | DDC 794.8023dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019038846
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019038847

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

W elcome to the field of computer game development and animation! This book is the ideal start for understanding the various careers available to you within the computer gaming industry, which is right for you, and what path you should follow to ensure you have all the training, education, and experience needed to succeed in your future career goals.

Computer game development is an exciting, creative, and thriving industry, and also a broad one. There are many roles and careers that fall under the umbrella of computer gamingfrom developers to writers, animators to testers, and everything in-between. Having so many paths to choose from is exciting, but it can also make it difficult to choose which is the most fitting to you.

Covering every career path involved in the creation of computer games is beyond the scope of this book. It will however cover the most common. This book will cover careers including

• Artist/animator
• Producer
• Sound designer
• Video game designer
• Video game developer
• Video game tester
• Writer

These jobs are widely available pretty much all over the country. They pay pretty well, too, considering that they dont all necessarily require that you have a college degree. And the industry is booming. In 2018, the gaming industry had massive growth, thanks to many new products and advances in technology. It was predicted the industry would be worth more than $130 billion by the start of 2019. Thats a very healthy outlook and good news for anyone looking to enter one of these professions. The future looks bright for these jobs as well, as youll see.

How does the job market look for young people seeking to enter the field of computer gaming? Although the field is a competitive one, it is growing rapidly. Advances in technologyincluding not only software advances but also the prevalence of devices such as smartphones and tablets on which people can play games more easily on the gohave kept the popularity of computer games growing, and the sophistication of the games is increasing continuously.

Employment opportunities in the field of computer gaming are expected to increase substantially over the ten years between 2016 and 2026. Video game designer opportunities are predicted to grow by 30 percent during that time period according to IT Career Finder. Thats certainly a positive predictionand a greater increase than most professions, which is around 7 percent.

Already a booming industryit has tripled over the last decadecareers for game designers, artists, writers, and producers, and so on are expected to grow substantially. Mobile game developmentcreating games to be played on smart devicesand more sophisticated technology development has created a demand for games incorporating augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies.